Lethal drugs are openly sold in shops across Glasgow, the Evening Times can ­reveal.

In less than an hour, we were able to buy a potentially fatal cocktail of so-called legal highs, any one of which could prove fatal.

Helpful shopkeepers were keen to offer advice about how the drugs should be taken.

Some staff suggested substances that can be smuggled into music festivals, but warned that the authorities will confiscate them if they're found.

I asked one city shop worker for legal highs and he reached under the counter and produced a sachet of 'Exodus Damnation'.

The packaging states that the chemical 'may result in dizziness, tingling sensations, disorientation, nausea, vomiting and headache'.

The shop worker said: "Be careful with this. Only use a little bit and mix it with tobacco before you smoke it.

"It's really strong. Don't smoke it on its own."

When asked if it would attract the attention of the police at a music festival he added: "It's legal to sell it but you might get done - keep it well hidden."

Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Drug Misuse Research (CDMR), Christopher Russell, who is leading a study of legal highs, said: "The survey that we're running, the majority of people who smoke something will smoke Exodus Damnation.

"It's a really popular one and it's lethal.

"It's a synthetic cannabinoid. There are so many variations of this.

"There's Mary Joy Damnation, Exodus Gold, Exodus Blue, and Exodus Pink. You smoke it with tobacco. On its own it can be more risky.

"Anything you're buying that you're smoking should have more imformation on the back than what is on the packet."

When asked if there were other legal highs available the shop workers offered to order in pills which are said to give the same effect as Class A drug Ecstasy.

He said: "We don't call them legal highs, because we're not allowed to sell them - ask for herbal incense or herbal pills.

"Come back at the weekend and I'll get them in for you.

"I'll give you a good price, so come to me."

When I returned, on a Saturday, he offered me so-called 'research chemical pellets' branded as 'SPARKLE E' and '5EAPB' at £10 a pill.

Both drugs, which are said to give the same euphoric feelings as ecstasy, have been linked to the deaths of youngsters.

When I complained about the price and said I could get them cheaper elsewhere, the shop worker said: "I only sell the real stuff. You might be able to get cheap copies at the Barras."

Staff in another city shop insisted they did not sell legal highs but, behind the counter, bottles of 'poppers' were available for pocket money prices.

The chemicals are sold as 'room odorisors' but brand names such as 'Buzz' and 'Rush' betray their more common use.

Poppers, which are inhaled, have been associated with the deaths of several drug users and yet several city centre newsagents display them.

One shop worker who had sold out of the drug directed us to another shop which sold them and urged us to come back in a few days when he would have more in stock.

Christopher Russell of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research said: "It's a more fashionable version of aerosols or glue.

"It can kill you. Some people will sniff this and it will cause a brain aneurism and that will be that."

peter.swindon@eveningtimes.co.uk